In the 1930's Sydney started building its own network of underground railway stations, just like Mother England had with THE Underground. Granted, the London Underground had something like... {counts on fingers, carry the 1, and}... about elebenty-fifty stations and we had... um, four, but it was a start.
Those four 1930's stations would eventually form the nucleus of the City Circle line. That line runs from Central Station (which is south of the CBD), north around the CBD, and back to Central. However that "circle" was over 20 years in the future. In the mid 50's the Circular Quay station would be finally built to connect the two stations running down the eastern part of the CBD (Museum and St James; those actually dated to 1926) with the two running down the west (Town Hall and Wynyard).
Wynyard, which also connects the city to North Sydney by rail via the Sydney Harbour Bridge, was opened on 28 February 1932. That was around 3 weeks before the Harbour Bridge itself did. Town Hall, the station before it, opened on the same date.
One of the features of the station was the long set of escalators that hauled people up... I don't know how far, exactly, but it's a hike...from the main Wynyard concourse to York and Clarence streets above. There were no shiny stainless steel escalators back in the 30's, no siree. These were solid wood. You would get on them and you would clunk'n'thunk your way up to York Street and you could viscerally FEEL how solid the contraption was through your feet as you rose.
The escalators were refurbished back in the 50's, again in the original Otis wood design. Generations of office workers, and many visitors to the city, knew of these escalators and the ads on the wall that you had plenty of time to read because the escalators weren't exceptionally fast. (Interesting side note... there is no longer any advertising in this part of the station.)
By the early 2010s even the parts that had been refurbished in the 50's were eligible for the old age pension. (Or would have been, had the government not kept moving the goal posts on what that age is; I think I can get a pension when I turn 425, unless they changed it again yesterday.) But by escalator standards, they were old. Powerfully old, in the case of the original 1932 hardware.
In 2017, the wooden escalators were finally removed and replaced by shiny steel ones, albeit with the polished wood that sits between the escalators being preserved. Fortunately someone recognised the historical and cultural value of the old ones, which had been part of so many lives for so many decades. Over a period of months a Sydney artist named Chris Fox used 244 of the old stairs, mounted them on an aluminium base, and created an artwork called Interloop. It was mounted above the entrance to the new escalators, and... here it is for your viewing pleasure.
I don't know when I will next see this. I used to pass this way on my way to see my tax agent, but on this visit he told me that his company is not renewing its lease on their building as of November this year. I've therefore made my last visit there, and I've not got much reason to go to that part of the city for any other purpose. On the same day I found out that the practice of my GP, who has been in the same location for... at least 15 years, I would say, is moving, albeit to a building which is just down the road.
It's a reminder, as if one were needed, that things can last for decades... but nothing lasts forever.
